Computer and communication technologies continue to advance at a rapid pace. Indeed, computer and communication technologies are involved in many aspects of a person's day. For example, many devices being used today by consumers have a small computer incorporated within the device. These small computers come in varying sizes and degrees of sophistication. These small computers may vary in sophistication from one microcontroller to a fully-functional complete computer system. For example, small computers may be a one-chip computer, such as a microcontroller, a one-board type of computer, such as a controller, a typical desktop computer, such as an IBM-PC compatible, etc.
Computers typically have one or more processors. The processor(s) usually are interconnected to different external inputs and outputs and function to manage the particular computer or device. For example, a processor in a thermostat may be connected to buttons used to select the temperature setting, to the furnace or air conditioner to change the temperature, and to temperature sensors to read and display the current temperature on a display.
Many electronic devices include one or more small computers. For example, thermostats, furnaces, air conditioning systems, refrigerators, telephones, typewriters, automobiles, vending machines, and many different types of industrial equipment now typically have small computers, or processors, inside of them. Computer software runs the processors of these computers and tells the processors what to do to carry out certain tasks. For example, the computer software running on a thermostat may cause an air conditioner to stop running when a particular temperature is reached or may cause a heater to turn on when needed.
Sometimes, an organization wants to make data about its electronic devices available to certain remote clients, i.e., clients who are not in the same physical location as the electronic devices. This data may relate to the operation of the electronic devices themselves. For example, the data may indicate whether an electronic device is turned on, whether it is calibrated correctly, whether a cycle of operation has completed correctly, and so forth. Alternatively, or in addition, this data may relate to something other than the operation of the electronic devices. For example, the data may include a user identifier that corresponds to a user of an electronic device, a measurement taken by an electronic device, an alert generated by an electronic device, and so forth.
An organization typically uses a third-party service to make data available to remote clients. The third-party service is under the control of a third party, i.e., an entity other than the organization. The third-party service fulfills requests for data from authorized remote clients. Some of the data that an organization wants to make available to remote clients may be sensitive, i.e., not intended for public disclosure. Often, the organization may not trust the third party with sensitive data. Thus, benefits may be realized if means were provided to enable an organization to make sensitive data available to remote clients without disclosing the sensitive data to third parties.